Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 25, 1994                   TAG: 9407260016
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JARRATT                                LENGTH: Medium

CABLE DOING TIME

Officials from the Wilder and Allen administrations deny approving the deal.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in its Sunday editions that a cable service contract was signed in March. The money will come from a canteen account financed by inmate purchases.

Corrections Director Ronald J. Angelone, appointed by Gov. George Allen, said the arrangement was approved by the administration of former Gov. Douglas Wilder.

Glenn Davidson, who was Wilder's chief of staff and is now managing Wilder's U.S. Senate campaign, denied any endorsement of cable TV for Greensville prisoners.

``It was certainly not approved under Wilder's administration,'' Davidson said. He said he reviewed Greensville's request in late 1993 but never received the final information he was seeking.

Jerry Kilgore, Allen's secretary of public safety, said, ``Our records here show that the Greensville cable was approved in the Wilder administration and just simply carried through ... under Governor Allen's watch.''

Angelone said Friday that a review of Corrections Department records indicated Wilder's executive assistant, Walter McFarlane, gave permission for prison officials to sign the contract without competitive bidding. CWA Cable, based in Littleton, N.C., is the sole cable provider in the Jarratt area.

McFarlane said Saturday he could not remember granting approval.

The Times-Dispatch obtained a copy of the approval form from prison officials, but the signature was illegible.

Greensville officials said they bought the cable service to improve TV reception for inmates.

Prisoners began receiving 11 cable service a few weeks ago instead of the one to three stations they picked up before, depending on weather.

The prison's television system allows 1,550 hookups for watching television in cells and day rooms, said Dan Lacks, Greensville building and grounds director. Inmates must provide their own television sets. Isolation cells will not be hooked up to the service.

Deputy Corrections Director Ed Morris said that, as of last summer, only five other prisons in Virginia provided cable service for inmates.

Nine other prisons paid for cable to day rooms, he said. Canteen profit paid for all the cable services.